An international team of astronomers observed the second one of the two supermassive black holes circling each other in an active galaxy OJ 287.
An international research team has discovered the first example of a supernova, known as SN 2018ivc, showing an unprecedented rebrightening at millimeter wavelengths about one year after the explosion.
When neutron stars collide, they produce a violent explosion. Data from the only well observed collision show that the explosion was perfectly spherical, completely contrary to expectations. How this is possible remains a mystery, but the discovery may provide a new key to fundamental physics and to measuring the age of the Universe. The discovery was made by an international collaboration led by astrophysicists from the University of Copenhagen and including researchers from the University of Turku. The research has just been published in the journal Nature.
A study led from the University of Turku discovered a supernova explosion that expands our understanding of the later life stages of massive stars.
The researchers observed the X-ray radiation from the matter around a black hole. According to the researchers the shape and orientation of the X-ray glow support the theory, that the X-rays come from the disc-shaped material flowing into the black hole which is perpendicular to previously imaged relativistic outflows of matter called jets. These findings give a better understanding about the inner workings of black holes and how they consume mass.
Researchers from the University of Turku determined geometrical parameters of a neutron star floating in the Galaxy 21,000 light years away. The finding confirms old ideas that this star precesses like a whirligig.
The department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Turku is a partner in the international Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) project, which will play a key role in shepherding in a new era of gravitational wave science. The GOTO observatory is made up of two identical telescope arrays on opposite sides of the planet that will track down sources of gravitational waves resulting from violent cosmic events that create ripples in the fabric of space-time itself.
Radio observations made by Metsähovi, Finland’s only astronomical radio observatory, and Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) in California have revealed that radiation from the remote PKS 2131-021 quasar is subject to periodic variation. Researchers at the University of Turku participated in the analysis of the observational data.
We know that in the centres of the majority of galaxies lies a supermassive black hole. New observations of certain galaxies reveal that these black holes may be consuming stars at a higher rate than previously known. The energy produced by the destruction of the star can be revealed in the infrared, as heat from cosmic dust warmed by the explosion.
Stellar-mass black holes that are part of binary systems sometimes show variable polarization of optical emission. The degree, angle and variability pattern of polarization is characteristic of the physical processes occurring in the vicinity of a black hole. By studying black holes astronomers learn how matter and energy behave under extreme conditions.